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In street photography, you often don't have time to consciously think about design, information and emotion before pressing the shutter. In fact, I try not to think. Thinking constipates things. I try to provide the elements of an interesting story in a single well-composed frame in 125th of a second, and to do that you don't have time to think. You really have to internalize the ingredients that make a good picture so that you become unconsciously drawn to good pictures without thinking. This comes from studying the work of masters in photography as well as painting, knowing your camera like the back of your hand, and shooting, shooting, shooting. In his book "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell says you have to do something for 10,000 hours before you achieve mastery, and Cartier-Bresson said your first 10,000 pictures are your worst. These numbers can seem overwhelming but the point is well taken—the more you practice at anything the better you become at it.
Speed and reaction time are very important in street photography, and hyperfocal focusing is an invaluable tool for me. This technique is often employed by landscape photographers to maximize depth of field, but I use it to determine a zone of focus that may or may not extend to infinity. One of the reasons I use rangefinder cameras is that they have easy to read and understand hyperfocal markings on their lenses. I often shoot with my 35mm lens set at f11 with the hyperfocal distance between 5 and 30 feet. With the lens set like this, everything between 5 and 30 feet will be in focus. By shooting in this way my Leica becomes faster than an autofocus camera and I don't end up with my subject out of focus and the background in focus, something that can happen when using autofocus cameras. The best example of the use of hyperfocus here is the man walking with the roll of tissue in his nose. I saw him walking towards me, and I had just enough time get off one shot. I knew my 50 mm lens was preset at 250th of a second to stop action, and at f11 for a hyperfocal distance of about 8 to 20 feet. I threw up my camera and got the shot. I would have missed it had I taken the time to focus and meter.
I don't use a tripod and almost never use flash.
I walk a great deal, and if I'm in a new city I'll purposely get lost to see what's around the next corner. However, if I find good light and an interesting background, I will wait as long as it takes for a good foreground to develop.
I am asked all the time if my pictures are posed or if the people know I'm taking their picture. In fact, my just-released book is entitled "UNPOSED" to hopefully answer that question before you even crack the cover. None of the shots in the book are staged. When I shoot in the street, sometimes the subjects are aware I'm taking their picture, most often they are not. One of my favorite techniques when standing in one place shooting is to act like I'm confused and don't know how to use the camera. I'll hold the camera up to my eye, quickly meter and take a picture, and immediately bring it down to chest level and look at it with frustration as if I simply don't know what I'm doing or the camera's not working. Most times people dismiss me.
I also like to shoot from the chest. I'll preset focus and exposure and snap pictures from my chest without ever bringing the camera up to my face. This can produce some very interesting angles and compositions. The shot of the two couples in the subway was taken at chest level.
Ralph Gibson has spoken of going to shoot with "a point of destination." A point of destination on any given day may be light, reflections, patterns, rectangles, etc. For me, the destination is usually irony. I have a background in writing and performing comedy, so looking for the funny is my default setting. I think it's a good idea to have something in mind when you hit the street, but never let that close you off from seeing other things. Be open to everything. It's amazing what you can find if you're looking. And seeing is everything. As Elliott Erwitt said, "All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for an inability to notice."
Finally, I think it's important to mention luck. Unfortunately, it plays a major role in street photography. Yes, you absolutely need to know your equipment and be prepared for the shot, but all the preparation in the world won't make a dapper dressed man walk jauntily past you with what appears to be a tampon sticking out of his nose.
A few more images...
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© Craig Semetko
About the Author:
Craig Semetko is an American photographer living in Los Angeles. Born and raised near Detroit, Michigan, Semetko became a comedy writer and performer after college and discovered photography as another means of storytelling while performing in a show that took him around the world. His comedic background has given him a highly developed sense of the absurd and ironic, resulting in a strong theme of humor throughout his work.
Semetko is inspired by the oddities and human idiosyncrasies that cross cultural boundaries, and he travels the world to find them.
"I often put myself in places where the odds of something odd happening are high--I live in LA, for example--but just as often the strange finds me and then I get very focused. As Hunter Thompson said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
In 2008 his work was featured with famed photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson in an exhibition entitled, "Street Photography: From Classic to Contemporary--Henri Cartier-Bresson and Craig Semetko," and he's had solo shows at the Leica Galeries in Frankfurt, Germany, Salzburg, Austria, and at Leica headquarters in Solms, Germany. In 2009, he was the keynote speaker at the Leica Historical Society of America's annual meeting in Seattle, Washington.
His work will be shown at the Leica Gallery New York City in Jan/Feb of 2011 in an exhibition entitled "UNPOSED," after his new book of the same name, published by teNeues with a foreword by Elliott Erwitt.
A graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a current masters candidate in Consciousness Studies at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, Semetko's photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and numerous other publications worldwide, and can be found in private collections throughout Europe and the United States.
To view more work by Craig visit his website at www.semetko.com
Interviews with Craig on the Leica Blog can be found here:
